Boom Town Novelisation
by Josman
Summary: Whilst on a refueling stop in Cardiff, The Doctor discovers an old enemy attempting to wipe the city from existence.
1. Welsh Starship Fuel

**Disclaimer: Nid wyf yn berchen Doctor Who, hyd yn oed yn y Gymraeg**

**Boom Town:**

**Chapter 1: Welsh Starship Fuel**

It was late at night, in the mayor's office when Mr Cleaver came to present his findings to her. He'd put a lot of time and effort into his investigations and he was terrified of the cost, should he fail to make an impact in his talk. "I've checked the figures, time and again, always the same result!" He insisted. "I beg of you. Stop the project now, before it's too late."

The Mayor blinked in surprise. "Well... Obviously, you're the expert."

"Then you'll stop it?"

"It seems I have no choice." Margret sighed.

"And you'll stop it today?"

"Of course. Nothing's more important than human life." Something in the mayor's tone troubled Cleaver, but she quickly reassured him. "What do you take me for? Some sort of maniac? Am I right in thinking you've shown your findings to no-one else?"

"Oh yes. Just you."

"Wise move." She smiled.

Cleaver sighed in relief and turned to look over the model of the power station, which sat in the hall next door. The moment his back was turned, Margret fumbled for the zip on her forehead.

"You know, this is a load off my mind." Cleaver said. "I've been going spare these last few weeks, up every night double checking the figures. I've barely even seen my wife. I just couldn't believe the scale of the thing! It's almost as if someone wanted the project to go wrong. Wanted the whole city to vanish. Thank God we've got you..." He turned back to Margret, only to find himself confronted by an eight foot clawed monster, which grabbed him by the neck.

* * *

Mickey stepped off the train in Cardiff station, or _Orsaf Caerdydd_ as the signs described it. Of course, no-one in this city spoke Welsh as a first language but the Welsh Parliament was adamant that it was important to show cultural significance from England.

He walked through the streets towards the Roald Dahl Plass, where he knew the TARDIS to be parked.

The city had certainly seen a lot of redevelopment in recent years, all the buildings seemed sparkling and new, particularly on a sunny day like today. The plass itself was a large and impressive monument, not exactly what he'd expected when he'd crossed the Welsh border in search of a familiar blue box.

Sure enough, the TARDIS was parked right in the middle of the square, next to the fountain, though nobody else seemed to notice. Mickey strolled up and knocked on the door.

To his surprise, the door was opened by a dark haired American. "Who the hell are you?"

"What do you mean who the hell am I?" Said Mickey. "Who the hell are you?"

"Whatever you're selling we're not buying, so if you'll just be on your way..."

"Out of my way." Mickey groaned and pushed past the man.

"Don't tell me." Said Jack. "This must be Mickey."

Mickey found the console room in a much less neat state than when he'd last seen it. Several panels were propped open, displaying a complex arrangement of circuitry. Cables were also strewn around the place.

"Hello Rickey boy!" The Doctor called from where he was fiddling with something on the catwalk.

"It's Mickey."

"Don't worry." Said Rose. "He's winding you up."

Mickey looked her over and thought about the thing he needed to tell her. Somehow it died in his throat. "You look fantastic." He said, and hugged her.

"Ah, sweet." Said Jack. "How come I never get any of that?"

"Buy me a drink first." Said the Doctor.

"Such hard work..."

"But worth it!"

"Did you manage to find it?" Said Rose.

Mickey rummaged in his pocket and pulled out Rose's passport. She grinned. "I can go anywhere now."

"I told ya. You don't need a passport." Said the Doctor. "You've got the TARDIS."

"It's all very well going to Platform 1 and the Justicia and the Glass Pyramid of Sanglia, but what if I end up in Brazil? I might need it. Prepared for anything me."

The Doctor just shook his head. That girl's thought process was baffling sometimes.

"Sounds like you're staying then?" Mickey said, with a hint of disappointment. Rose wasn't sure what to say. After a few seconds' awkward silence, Mickey changed the subject. "So what you doing in Cardiff? And where'd you find jumping Jack flash?" He gestured to Jack. "I mean big ears was bad enough..."

"Oy!" Said the Doctor.

"Look in a mirror. But now this guy's more..."

"Handsome?" Jack grinned. "Muscular?"

"I was going to say cheesy."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Early 21st century slang. Is cheesy good?"

"No, it's bad."

"But bad means good, is that right?" Said Jack.

Rose decided to answer Mickey's other question, while the Doctor ran his hand over his ear. "We just stopped off to refuel. You see, Cardiff's got this rift running through it. It's invisible, but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions..."

"...The rift was healed, back in 1869..." The Doctor picked up from her.

"...Thanks to a girl called Gwyneth." Rose added. "You see, these creatures called the Gelth were using the rift as a portal, but she saved the world and closed it..."

"...But closing a rift leaves behind a scar." Jack stepped in. "And that scar bleeds energy, harmless to the human race..."

"...But perfect for the TARDIS." Said the Doctor. "We just park the TARDIS here for a couple of days, soak up the energy..."

"...The fill her up with petrol and off we go..." Said Rose.

"...Into time..." Said Jack.

"...And space!" They all said together, before high fiving at their unrehearsed coordination.

Mickey rolled his eyes. "Have you seen yourselves? You think you're so clever, don't you?"

"Yep." They each said in turn, grinning.

* * *

It was a tricky system to wire up. The loss of Galifrey had wrecked the previous power source and the Doctor had had to improvise this one from scratch. There were bound to be a few rough edges.

But eventually, everything was connected and they made their way out.

"Should take about 24 hours to fuel up." Said the Doctor. "Gives us time to kill."

But Mickey was looking at something else. "That old woman's staring."

"Probably wondering what four people would be doing inside a small wooden box." Jack grinned suggestively.

"What are you captain of exactly?" Mickey asked. "The innuendo squad?"

Jack just made a gesture that Rose had told him meant "whatever!"

"Can you just leave the TARDIS like this?" Mickey said. "Doesn't it get noticed?"

"I've been meaning to ask." Said Jack. "What's with the blue box?"

"It's a cloaking device." Said Rose.

The Doctor nodded. "Chameleon circuit. It's programmed to transform into whatever's likely to go unnoticed wherever it lands. So, if we landed in ancient Rome, it would be a statue on a plinth. I landed in the 1960s and it turned into a Police Box, but the circuit got stuck."

"What, so it turned into a real thing?" Said Mickey. "There really were Police Boxes?"

"Used to find 'em on street corners. Phone for help before they had mobiles and radios. If they arrested someone, they could lock 'em inside until help arrived. Sort of like a mini prison cell."

"If it's stuck, why don't you just fix the circuit?" Said Jack.

"I like it, don't you?" He shrugged.

"I love it." Rose smiled.

"But that's my point though." Said Mickey. "There's no Police boxes anymore. So doesn't it get noticed?"

"Mickey," He patted the man's shoulder. "Let me tell you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap-bang in the middle of a major population centre and what does everyone do? Walks past it, that's what. Just an odd thing to be ignored. Come on, let's have a look round."

"What do you fancy?" Said Rose.

"Dunno. Cardiff, early 21st century, and the wind's blowing from the... east. Trust me, safest place in the universe."

* * *

"This nuclear power station, right in the heart of Cardiff will bring jobs for all!" Margret announced to the assembled members of the press, who gave a round of applause. It was all too easy gaining human being's trust when you were from a galactic mafia family. Even the government had been too busy recovering from the loss of Downing street to notice what she was doing.

She picked up her microphone and walked over to the model of the city. "Now I have had to make some quite radical redevelopments to make way for the Blaidd Drwg project. Cardiff Castle will need to be demolished, allowing the project to rise up, tall and proud. A monument to Welsh industry!"

A photographer chose this moment to snap a picture of her. "I said no photographs!" She snapped at him, before realising she'd let her facade down for a moment and hurriedly composed herself. "Photograph the project if you will, but not me." She said a lot more sweetly. "Now, I understand that some of you may be worried. The words "nuclear power station" and "major population centre" aren't exactly the best of bedfellows. But I give you my personal guarantee: As long as I walk upon this Earth, not one of my citizens will be harmed." She raised a glass of Champaign. "A toast. To the future! And believe me. It will glow."

As the press applauded again, Margret downed her glass and made for the back exit, only for a press girl to stop her. "Excuse me, Mrs Blaine. My name's Cathy Salt. I represent _The Cardiff Gazette_..."

"I'm not doing interviews. I can't stand personal publicity." Too much and Harriet Jones descending upon her.

But Cathy was insistent. "But are you aware of the curse?"

That got her attention. "Curse? What are you talking about?"

"That's what some of your engineers are saying. That the Blaidd Drwg project is cursed."

"Sounds rather silly to me."

"That's what I thought, I was just absorbing some local colour. But the funny thing is, when you start piecing it together, it does seem rather odd."

"In what way?"

"The deaths! First of all, there was the entire team of European safety inspectors..."

"But they were French, it was hardly my fault if _Danger, explosives_ was only written in Welsh." She made for the door again, but Cathy followed.

"And what about that accident with the Cardiff heritage committee?"

"The electrocution of that swimming pool was put down to natural wear and tear."

"The architect?"

"It was raining. Visibility was low. My car simply couldn't stop."

"And then just recently Mr Cleaver. The government's nuclear safety adviser..."

"Slipped on an icy patch."

"He was decapitated!"

"It was a _very_ icy patch. Now, if you don't mind, these rumours are just typical small town thinking. I really must be getting on." She tried to go, but Cathy stepped in front of her.

"It's just that, before he died, Cleaver posted some of his findings online."

"Did he now?"

"If you know where to look. He was very concerned by the reactor design."

"All that technical stuff." Margret laughed.

"Specifically, that the design of the suppression pool would cause the hydrogen recombiners to fail, precipitating in the collapse in the containment isolation system and resulting in a meltdown."

Margret did her best to show as little comprehension as possible. "Someone's been doing her homework."

"It's my job, you see." Cathy smiled.

Margret smiled back. "I think, Cathy Salt, you and I should have a talk in private." She took the startled girl by the arm and led her out the door and down a corridor. "Sorry I was in a rush to leave, my tummy's complaining. I think we may need to take a detour to the ladies."

"I'll wait here." Cathy offered.

"No, come on. All girls together." She led the woman to her private toilet, which was at the end of a long passageway in a quiet part of the building. "So anyway. Tell me more of your outlandish theories." She said, stepping into the cubicle itself and shutting the door between them.

"Well, I'm not much with nuclear physics." Cathy said through the door. "But from what I could make out, Mr Cleaver was saying that there's a very strong chance the whole project could go up in smoke, worse than Chernobyl." She noticed a bright blue glow emanating from under the door. "Is there some problem with the lights?"

"Oh, they're always on the blink." Margret grinned as she peeled off the skin suit. "I can't tell you how many memos I've sent. So, Chernobyl?"

"Yes. But a thousand times worse. It's hard to imagine. There must be so many safety regulations, but Mr Cleaver was talking about nuclear holocaust. It's not exactly our job to look for these things, we're only _The Cardiff Gazzete_, but we still have a duty to report the facts."

Margret dropped the skin suit to the floor and stretched her clawed arms. "Are you going to print this information?"

Cathy noticed a change in her voice. "Are you alright?"

"Sore throat. But tell me, do you intend to make this information public?"

"I have to." Cathy shrugged.

"So be it." She snarled, raising her arm.


	2. Raxacoricofallapatorius's Most Wanted

**Chapter 2: Raxacoricofallapatorius's Most Wanted**

"Mind you, my fiancé thinks I'm mad." Cathy sighed. Margret abruptly froze, with her claw poised at the door. "Says I could lose my job if I raise a fuss. We're getting married in a few weeks, says we need the money for the wedding."

"You're, getting married?" Margret asked. "When's the wedding?"

"19th. It's mostly to stop my mum nagging, but the baby sort of clinched it."

Margret stepped away from the door. "You're... with child?"

"Three months. Not showing yet. It wasn't planned. Was an accident. Nice accident."

"Congratulations." Margret squelched down on the toilet. It was awkward sitting there when she was eight feet tall but she was in need of a sit down.

"What about you? Got any kids? Is there a Mr Blaine?"

"No." The Slitheen sighed. "I once had a sizable family, many brothers. Oh, they were bold! But all of them gone now. Maybe you're right. Maybe I am cursed."

"No, don't say that." Cathy smiled.

Margret was silent for a moment. "I may be in here for a while. Why don't you run along. Maybe we can do this another day?"

"Are you sure you're alright?" Cathy asked again.

"Oh yes, I'm fine."

"Ok, well, I'll leave my details with your office. Maybe we can arrange something?"

"That would be lovely."

Cathy left, blissfully unaware of how narrowly she'd survived. Margret just sat there with her head in her claws.

* * *

Jack had never visited this time period before but apparently it was the Doctor's favourite historical era and Rose's home. He supposed there was probably something romantic about a planet making its first baby-steps into space. Plus it deed seem like a reasonably comfortable place to live, despite the shortage in technology.

Mickey had been a bit suspicious of him at first but had quickly warmed to him when he'd told him some funny stories about Rose and the Doctor, such as the time when a bizarre set of circumstances had left the two of them hopping for their lives as a race of tortoise-people closed in on them. But he also had some funnier stories about his own adventures...

"...So then I spun round and I saw it there! Six feet tall, with tusks! And I mean tusks! Those white things actually turned out to be tusks! It's awake and it's not happy."

"How could you not know it was there?" The Doctor laughed.

"So now there's sixteen of us, all naked, and I'm like, "Nothing to do with me." It roars and we are running! Rockovich falls, and I turned to him and I said..."

"Let me guess, "I knew we shouldn't've gone left!"" Mickey laughed.

"I don't believe these stories sometimes." Rose grinned. "So did you leave him?"

"No, I picked him up and I made for the ship. Full throttle. I was shaking like crazy. I was fifteen light years away before I realised I was still naked, and by then, our commander was already pulling alongside..."

"Look at this!" The Doctor interrupted, noticing a newspaper someone was reading on the adjoining table. He snatched it off the man and showed it to the others. "And I was having such a nice day."

The headline, _New Mayor New Cardiff_, under a picture of Margret Slitheen, told them everything they needed to know.

* * *

Having made their way past security at the government building, who barely glanced at the psychic paper anyway, the four of them made their way towards the stairs.

"According to intelligence," said Jack, not mentioning that intelligence consisted of the other three, "the target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius. Plan of attack: We assume a basic 57-56 strategy covering all available exits on the ground floor. Doctor, you go face to face. That constitutes exit 1. Rose, you take exit 2. Mickey, exit 3. I'll take exit 4."

"Excuse me." Said the Doctor. "Who's in charge here?"

"Sorry, sir. Awaiting orders."

The Doctor grinned. "Right... Like he said. Anything to add?"

"Yeah." Said Jack. "Weapons ready."

They each pulled out their phones and hit a conference call setting so they could communicate.

"Right." Said the Doctor. "Let's move."

He and Jack immediately moved for their designated exits. Rose paused for a moment then headed for the nearer of the other two exits. Mickey hadn't spent as much time as them fleeing buildings and hadn't thought to memorise the layout before they'd gone in. He decided to go in the only direction none of the others had. Fortunately, it led him to where he needed to be and he stood down the hall from the fire door, so as not to arouse suspicion.

"Hello." Said the Doctor. "I'd like to see the lord mayor."

"Do you have an appointment?" The secretary asked, in a very eloquent voice.

"No, just an old friend, passing through. Can't wait to see her face." He grinned.

"Well I'm afraid she's having a cup of tea..."

"Go in there and tell her the Doctor would like to see her."

"Doctor whom?"

"Just the Doctor. Tell her that. The Doctor."

The secretary sighed and stepped into the next room. A few seconds passed. A mug smashed in the next room, and the secretary returned, looking a lot less composed than before.

"The the lord mayor says sh-she's glad y-you stopped by. But she's up to her eyes in paperwork. Perhaps, perhaps you might like to make an appointment for next week?"

"She's climbing out the window isn't she?"

"Yes."

The Doctor shoved the secretary aside and ran through the office, through a window, onto a long balcony. Down the end, he saw Margret clambering down onto some scaffolding.

"Slitheen heading north." He said into the phone.

Jack heard the word and made for the door so he could cover the gate outside, leaping over a tea trolley as a caterer pushed it out ahead of him.

In another part of the building, Rose made for her door, knocking a stack of files out of an infuriated businessman's hands as she went.

Mickey made for his door but found it blocked by a cleaner's trolley. Like Jack, he tried to vault it. Unlike Jack, he fell short sending the whole thing tumbling over.

Margret's secretary, meanwhile had dug up some bravery and he grabbed the Doctor from behind as he tried to run after the woman.

Margret pulled the beaded necklace from her neck and the earrings from her ears as she ran. She raced around the side of the building, only to see Rose appearing round the corner ahead. She growled and ran for the back gate, but it seemed Jack had beaten her to that one. She'd never seen the man. But his look said that he knew who she was. She ran for the other side of the building, assembling her jewellery together as she did so.

The Doctor had shaken off the secretary and scrambled down the scaffolding himself, joining Jack and Rose on the ground. They closed in on Margret as she rounded the corner ahead. Upon rounding the corner, they found her running down an empty pathway towards a side gate.

"Who was covering exit 3?" Cried Jack.

"Mickey." Said Rose.

Mickey chose this moment to burst through the door, trailing a bucket on his foot.

"Mickey the idiot." Muttered the Doctor.

"Still," said Rose, watching the poorly proportioned woman struggling to make pace ahead, "it's not like she can outrun us."

Margret had assembled the jewellery together into her discrete teleport device. She hit a button and vanished from sight.

"Teleport!" Shouted Jack. "That's cheating! We'll never catch her now!"

"Oh, don't worry." Rose grinned. "He's great with teleports."

Sure enough, the Doctor was waving his sonic screwdriver in the air. Margret promptly reappeared, running towards them. Confused she turned and ran, teleporting away as she did so. The Doctor soniced her again and she reappeared, running towards them, even closer than before. Frustrated, she turned, ran and teleported again. The Doctor soniced her and she reappeared staggering towards them, out of breath, just ahead of them.

"I could do this all day." The Doctor grinned.

Margret put her hands up. "This is persecution. What did I ever do to you?"

"You tried to kill me, and destroy this entire planet."

"...Apart from that!"

* * *

Margret's security team had asked a few questions, but a quick whisper in her ear told Margret that it would be best to deal with the Doctor, rather than the government, and she'd waved the security people away.

That sorted, they'd led her into the presentation room, to find out what she was up to.

"So," said the Doctor, "You're a Slitheen. You're stuck on Earth. What do you do. Build a nuclear power station. Why?"

"Philanthropic gesture." Margret shrugged. "I've learnt the error of my ways."

"And it just happens to be sitting on top of the rift." Said the Doctor.

"Really? What rift would that be?"

"The rift in time and space." Said Jack. "If this thing goes into meltdown, the whole Earth gets turned inside out. You've set this thing to blow the moment it reaches capacity."

"But wouldn't someone notice?" Said Rose. "Isn't there someone in London checking this stuff?"

Margret rolled her eyes. "We're in Cardiff. London doesn't care. The whole south coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice." She paused suddenly. "Goodness, I sound like a Welshman. God help me, I've gone native!"

Mickey peered over the model of the power station. "But why would she do that? Surely she'd just go up with it."

"She's got a name you know." Margret growled.

"She's not even a she. She's a thing!"

"Oh, but she's clever." The Doctor grinned. He reached down and yanked the black platform the model of the power station stood on from its mountings. He flipped it over to reveal a mass of complex circuitry.

"Is that a type 1 physical wavelength microconnetic extrapolator?" Jack drooled with excitement.

"Couldn't've put it better myself." The Doctor handed it to the man. Since he seemed excited enough, it was probably appropriate to let him explain it to Rose and Mickey.

"That is genius!" Jack grinned. "You didn't build this!"

"I have my hobbies." Margret smiled.

"No, you _really_ didn't build this. The technology's beyond you. Where'd you get it?"

"Bet she stole it." They overheard Mickey mutter.

"It fell into my hands." She growled.

"So it's a weapon?" Said Rose.

"Transport." Jack said. He put the extrapolator on the ground and stood on it. This station goes boom, huge cataclysmic event, but this thing absorbs the energy and forms a bubble around you, protecting you from the blast. And then, you feed it coordinates and ride the shockwave out of the solar system!"

"It's a surfboard." Mickey grinned.

"A pan dimensional surfboard." Jack nodded.

"And I would have gotten away with it too." Margret snarled. I'd have surfed away from this measly backwater planet."

"You'd blow up a whole planet just to get a lift?" Cried Mickey.

"Like stepping on an anthill."

It was only at this point that they noticed that the Doctor had left the group to go and stare at a banner hung up on the wall, with the name of the project splashed across it. "How'd you come up with the name?" He said.

"Margret raised an eyebrow."Blaidd Drwg? It's Welsh."

"Yeah, but how did you think of it?"

"Random choice. Saw it on a Welsh children's book and thought it sounded good. I don't know. Does it matter?"

"The Doctor turned to face them, with a ghostly look in his eyes. "Blaidd Drwg."

"What's it mean?" Said Rose. But even as she asked, the TARDIS translation began to reshape the letters into English for her. "Bad wolf?" She read. "But I've heard that before. I've heard that lots of times."

The Doctor nodded. "Two words, following us wherever we go."

"But how could they be following us?"

The Doctor thought for a moment then shook himself off. "Nah, just a coincidence. Like hearing a word on the radio then hearing it all day. Anyway, more important things to do. Margret, time to get you home."

"Hey wait." Said Jack. "Isn't that the easy way? We'd be letting her go."

"Does that mean we get to go to Raxicollo..." Rose beagan but stalled. The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Wait, I've got it... Raxacorico..."

"Raxacoricofallapatorius." The Doctor sighed.

"Raxacorico..."

"...fallapatorius." The Doctor egged her on now.

"Raxacorico...fallapatorius! I did it!" She squealed in delight.

"That's it!" The Doctor pulled her into an excited hug.

"They have the death penalty." Margret cut into the mood. "The Slitheen family was tried in its absence years ago and found guilty, with no chance of appeal. The moment I arrive, I am to be executed. What do you make of that Doctor? Take me home and you take me to my death."

The Doctor thought for a moment. "Not my problem."

* * *

Margret gazed around the console room in a state of awe. "This ship is just impossible! How do you get the outside around the inside like that?"

"Like I'd give you the secret." The Doctor muttered.

Margret sighed. "But it is marvellous though. I almost feel better about being defeated now, I never stood a chance! Not against technology like this."

The Doctor ignored her. "Jack, how're you getting on with that extrapolator? Can we use it for power?"

Jack was busy connecting a series of probes to the board. "It's not compatible, but we should be able to knock about 12 hours off."

"Which means we're stuck here 'till morning." He peered at the Slitheen opposite.

"I'm in no hurry." She sighed.

"So we have a prisoner!" Rose grinned. "The police box actually has a prisoner!" For the first time, they'd arrested one of the perpetrators of a scheme they'd stopped, instead of killing them, intentionally or not.

"Oh, but you're so much more than that." Margret grinned. "You're taking me to my death. And that makes you my executioners.

"Yeah. But you deserve it." Said Mickey, though he didn't sound as convinced as he'd hoped.

Margret sighed. "We've got a long night ahead of us. Let's see who can look me in the eye."

She settled down on the captain's chair. The Doctor and Jack suddenly became very interested in their work. Mickey folded his arms and stared at her as though in a contest, but his nerve broke first and he looked away. Margret now turned to stare at Rose, who gazed in another direction as soon as Margret looked at her. It was going to be a very long night.

**Author's notes: Boom Town really isn't a good story to try and draw cliffhangers out of.**


	3. Consequences

**Chapter 3: Consequences**

Sometime later, Mickey went out for some fresh air. As he went to stare at the fountain, he became aware of Rose stood behind him.

"Blinkin' freezing out here." Said Rose. "How do you stand it?"

"Better than in there." Mickey nodded towards the TARDIS. He shook himself off. "She does deserve it though, she's a Slitheen, and a killer. It's just... Unnerving."

"You know." Rose smiled suggestively. "I didn't really need that passport."

"Didn't think you did." Mickey grinned, though it didn't reach his eyes. He'd guessed right from the start what Rose was after. It had been a flimsy excuse anyway. "I've been thinking, we could... go out somewhere, for a drink. Or a pizza. Just you and me. Maybe... Check into a hotel, or something..."

"Yeah, that would be good." Rose said.

"You need to tell him?"

Rose looked at the TARDIS for a moment, then decided against it. "None of his business."

The Doctor watched on the scanner as Rose took Mickey's arm and led him away.

Jack couldn't see the screen, but could tell the Doctor was watching something. "What's on?"

He quickly flipped the image off. "Nothing!"

He and Jack were tinkering with the console, determinedly not looking in the corner where Margret had placed herself, nor responding to her occasional comments.

"It's not always like this, is it Doctor?" She said. "You never have to wait. You're usually the first to fly off, never mind the consequences." The Doctor remained silent. "But not this time. Now you've got consequences." He continued to treat her like a low background noise. "You butchered my family, ran off to the stars."

"I didn't butcher them." The Doctor said, finally.

"Don't answer her, it's what she wants." Said Jack.

"I didn't though! What about you? You had that teleport. Didn't think of taking them with you?"

"It only carries one." She snapped. "Didn't even have time to programme it properly. Ended up in a skip in the Isle of Dogs."

"The Doctor and Jack burst out laughing.

"It isn't funny!" She shouted.

"Sorry." The Doctor calmed himself with a huge effort, but burst out laughing again. "It is a bit funny."

Margret smiled. "I suppose it is rather." She pondered for a moment. "Do I get a last request?"

"Depends what it is." The Doctor replied. He half expected her to make a last request for a gun and a TARDIS operator's handbook.

"I got quite fond of my human life. All the little rituals. The brushing of the teeth and the complicated way they cook things. There's a little restaurant by the bay I quite like, if you could take me there?"

The Doctor put his tools aside and went to talk to her. "Is that what you want? A last meal?"

"Don't I have rights?" She shrugged.

"Oh, like she's not gonna try to escape." Jack laughed.

"Except I can never escape from the Doctor, so where's the danger! Could you do it Doctor? Sit and eat with someone you're about to kill? I've seen you fight your enemies. Now dine with them."

The Doctor seriously considered her words for a while. Clearly, this was her way of forcing him into more awkward conversation. "You won't change my mind." He assured her.

"Are you prepared to put that to the test?"

"There's people out there. If you slip away, just for one second, they'll be in danger."

Jack had a sudden idea. "Except she can't, 'cos you'll be wearing these." He pulled a couple of bracelets from his pocket. "If she moves more than ten feet from you, she gets zapped by 10,000 volts of electricity!"

The Doctor took the bracelets from him, deciding not to question why he was keeping them in his pocket, at the ready. "Margret, would you like to come out to dinner with me? My treat."

She smiled manically. "Dinner in bondage. My pleasure."

* * *

To the people of Cardiff, the Doctor and Margret looked like any other couple out for a romantic evening. The waitress even offered to put them in the corner before the Doctor insisted that he'd prefer something in the centre of the room.

"Here we are, on a date." Said Margret, as the Doctor buried himself behind the menu. And you never even asked for my name."

"It's not a date." The Doctor sighed. "What's your name?"

"Blon." She replied. "Blon Fel Fotch Pasemea Dai Slitheen. At least that's what it will say on my death certificate."

The Doctor continued reading the menu, as he said. "Nice to meet you Blon."

Noticing something through the glass wall behind him, Margret pointed. "That's where I was living these past few months. Tiny place, top floor. Next to the one with the light on it." As the Doctor turned to look, she flipped open her ring and poured knock out powder into the Doctor's wine.

The Doctor shrugged at the sight of the flat, before swapping his and Margret's glasses around.

"Thank you." She said.

"Pleasure."

"So tell me Doctor, what do you know of our species?"

"Only what I've seen." He buried himself in the menu again.

"Do you know, for example, in extreme circumstances, when her life is in danger, the female Raxacoricofallapatorian can manufacture a poisoned dart within her own finger?"

She shot a dart at the Doctor, who casually caught it between his thumb and forefinger, before tossing it aside. "Yeah, I did actually."

"Just checking." She beamed, then paused for a moment. "And between you and me..." She looked cautiously around then leaned in closer. The Doctor followed suit, hearing her whisper: "As a last resort, the excess poison can be exhaled through the lungs."

As she let out a puff of poison vapour, the Doctor sprayed some breath freshener down her throat, effectively neutralising it. "Much better." he returned to the menu. "Steak looks good. Steak and chips I think." He'd given up on vegetarianism a couple of centuries back.

Margret fumed and picked up her own menu. She supposed telling everyone the Doctor had passed out, then carrying him across the plass in this weak, human body would have been too difficult anyway.

* * *

Rose and Mickey had already eaten by this point and gone for a walk along the waterfront, despite the cold breeze.

Rose was talking animatedly about her adventures in the TARDIS, making Mickey feel increasingly inadequate. "The Doctor took me to this planet, much colder than this, called Woman Wept. The planet was actually called Woman Wept! 'cos if you looked from above, there's this continent which, sort of, looks like a woman bent over, you know, weeping. We went to this beach there, beautiful scenery and no people! And one night the whole sea just froze, in a second, all the way to the horizon, right in the middle of a storm! Midnight right, we go out and walk through these waves a hundred feet tall..."

"I'm going out with Tricia Delaney." Mickey blurted out. He had to say it now or never.

Rose stood stunned for a few minutes. He'd left her. Had this whole evening been his attempt to lessen the blow? Or worse, was he testing the water to decide which girl he preferred? "Tricia from the shop?" Was all she could think to say.

"Yeah, Rob Delaney's sister."

She thought for a moment. "Well... good for you. She's nice. Little on the heavy side..."

"She's lost weight... You've been away." He took a breath. "So, tell me more about this planet then,"

She discretely turned away. "That's all there is really."

* * *

Margret could tell that her words were at least affecting the Doctor. "Public execution is a slow death." She said. "They prepare a specially thin ascetic acid, and boil me. The acidity is just right to strip off skin and organs. I become soup. And still alive. Still screaming."

"I don't make the law." The Doctor sighed.

"You deliver it though!" She said, glad to finally have a foothold somewhere. "Will you stay to watch?"

"What else can I do?"

"The Slitheen family is vast, scattered off world. Take me to them. Take me somewhere safe."

He chuckled at that. "I can't let you go. You'll just start again, with some other world somewhere."

"I promise I won't."

"You've been in that skin suit too long. You've forgotten. There used to be a real Margret Blaine. You killed her, stripped her insides out and used the skin. You're pleading for mercy from a dead woman's lips."

"Perhaps I have got used to it. This human life. That's all I ask. An ordinary life. I can change."

"I don't believe you."

* * *

Mickey was sat on a bench by the seafront, while Rose leaned on the railings, deliberately not looking at him. "What do you want to do now?" He asked.

"Don't mind." She said shortly.

"Could look at hotels..."

Rose scowled at that suggestion. "What would Tricia Delaney say?"

"S'pose you're right." He thought for a moment. "There's a bar over there with a Spanish name..."

"You don't even like Tricia Delaney!" Rose shouted at last.

"Oh, and how would you know?"

"Because I know you, and I know her, and I know it's never gonna work! So who do you think you're kidding?"

"At least I know where she is!"

Rose huffed. "That's what it's about then. It's not about her, is it. I'm not around for you all the time so you go off with someone else to get back at me!"

"What, so it's ok for you to run off with some random man, but I can't look at other women?"

"Mickey, I've always wanted to go travelling. This is my chance, you're supposed to be supportive!"

"You left me Rose!" He shouted. "We were nice, and you treated me like I was nothing! I was a murder suspect 'cos of you. You were gone for a year and then you just disappeared again without a second's thought! And you just expect me to wait for you. I can't even go out with a girl from the shop 'cos you pick up the phone and I have to come running. Is that what I am Rose, standby? Am I supposed to just sit here and wait for you for the rest of my life Rose, 'cos I will!"

Rose didn't know what to say to that. "I'm sorry." Was all she could manage.

Mickey sighed and leaned against the railing himself. Rose tried to put a reassuring hand of his arm but he snatched it away.

* * *

In a slightly less frosty part of town, Margret was trying every approach she could think of to break down the Doctor, and it was working. It's easy to deal with monsters when they're rampaging around destroying worlds. But when they're diplomatic and pleading for their life it introduces a whole new moral dilemma.

"I am getting better Doctor." She said. "There was a girl, earlier today. She was a threat, got too close to what I was doing. As the family taught me, I was ready to kill without a thought. But then... she told me about her family. I felt remorse for her. She's alive now because I can change! Of course I can't prove it at the moment..."

"I believe you." The Doctor shrugged.

"Then you know I can be a better person?"

He shook his head. "It doesn't change anything. Once in a while, a little victim gets spared. Because they have family... Because they cried... Because they have freckles... It's how you live with yourself. How you slaughter millions. Once in a while, if the wind's in the right direction, you let some of them go."

"Is that how you live with yourself, Doctor?" She smiled. "It takes one killer to know another. I know your ways. Playing with so many lives like that, you may as well be a god. You never stop to think about what you've done, you just move on, because you can never look back. You just sail away, leaving death and destruction in your wake. And you're right. Sometimes you do let them go. Let me go, Doctor. Please?"

The Doctor didn't respond. His look alone told her that wasn't going to happen.

* * *

Rose and Mickey had calmed down and taken each other by the hand. Like the Doctor and Margret, they had a complicated problem they needed to talk through nicely.

"I wouldn't ask you to leave him, 'cos I know that's not fair." Said Mickey, as a low rumble sounded from across the city. "I just want some guarantee that when you do come back, you're coming back for me. 'cos I don't know..."

"Is that thunder?" Rose interrupted, as another rumble sounded.

"Rose, does it matter? 'cos what I'm saying is..."

"That's not thunder!"

* * *

Margret was getting desperate. She'd thought she'd come close to convincing the Doctor a few times, but he always retreated behind his distant, aloof facade. She was trying one last approach. "In the family Slitheen, we have no choice. I was made to cary out my first kill at thirteen! If I'd refused, my dad would have had me fed to the benning grubs!" She paused and waited for the Doctor to make some smug comment in response, but none came. "Doctor, are you listening to me?"

"Can you hear that?" He said.

"I'm begging for my life!"

"Shh. Listen..."

The rumbling noise in the distance didn't fade away, it got progressively louder. Meanwhile the floor began to shake, rattling the tables and shaking their wine glasses. Seconds later, the whole ground convulsed, shattering all the windows and tripping up anyone standing. Looking out the window, the Doctor could see that the whole of Cardiff was shaking violently.


	4. The Rip in Time

**Chapter 4: The Rip in Time**

The initial shock of the earthquake threw Mickey to the ground. He hauled himself to his feet and looked around for Rose. But she wasn't there. Instead, she was racing away from him in the direction of the Roald Dahl Plass.

"Oh go on then run!" He shouted after her. "It's him again, isn't it? It's the Doctor! It's always going to be the Doctor! It's never going to be me!"

* * *

A few streets closer to the TARDIS, Margret was desperately trying to keep up with the Doctor, but she was lagging behind. She could already feel the bracelet sparking on her wrist as she approached the limits. "Handcuffs!" She shouted after the him.

The Doctor relented and soniced them off. "Don't think about running away." He warned.

"Oh, I'm sticking with you!" She cried, looking round in genuine panic. All around them, people were running screaming. Streetlights were exploding one at a time, and buildings were breaking apart at the edges. If they couldn't reach the TARDIS soon, they'd be buried under rubble. They ran for the bay, dodging back briefly as a chunk of bricks crashed into the pavement ahead of them. "Some date this turns out to be!" She screamed.

When they reached the TARDIS, they discovered a huge column of energy shooting up from its roof, into a vortex in the clouds.

"It's the rift." Said the Doctor. "The rift's opening."

They raced for the TARDIS, dodging around the huge cracks beginning to appear under their feet.

Inside, they found Jack struggling to shut down the extrapolator. "It just went crazy!" He shouted.

"It's the rift." Said the Doctor. "Time and space are ripping apart. The whole city's gonna disappear." He ran for the console and tried to operate the emergency shut off, but each control he hit just produced a jet of sparks.

"It's the extrapolator!" Shouted Jack. "I've disconnected it but it's still feeding off the TARDIS. I can't stop it!"

The Doctor looked in horror at the display of warning lights flashing all over the console "It's not just the city, it's the whole planet's gonna go!"

"What is it? What's happening?" Shouted Rose, rushing through the door to join them.

"Oh, only little me!" Grinned Margret. Before anyone had time to register what she was doing, she'd ripped the right arm off her skin suit and grabbed Rose's neck in her claw. "One wrong move and she snaps like a promise!"

"I might have known." Growled the Doctor.

"I had you bleating all night!" She grinned. "If only you'd agreed to let me go, I might have forgone this. Your world would be safe! Probably not though." She turned to Jack. "You there, flyboy. Put the extrapolater at my feet!"

Jack turned to the Doctor, who hesitated. As Margret tightened her grip on Rose, the Doctor nodded to the captain, who grabbed the extrapolater and slid it towards the Slitheen.

"Thank you." She smiled. "Exactly as I planned."

"I thought... you needed to... blow up a power station." Rose gasped.

Margret shrugged. "That was one way. Failing that, I reasoned that, should I be arrested, anyone capable of finding me would have a considerable level of technology. They would almost certainly be seduced by the extrapolater. The extrapolater was programmed to lock on to the strongest alien power source. And what a source it found!"

"But everything will fold back, you'll destroy this whole planet!" Cried Jack.

"And you with it! While I ride the crest of the inferno, all the way to Alpha Centuri! Stand back boys! Surf's up!"

Jack looked to the Doctor for what to do. But the time lord had been starring at Margret quietly throughout this whole exchange.

Just then, the lights on one of the console panels went dead and the panel lifted up. The most brilliant white light Rose had ever seen flooded from the space where the panel had been.

"Of course, pulling the rift apart also means pulling the ship apart." The Doctor smiled.

"So soon?" She laughed.

"It's not just any ship."

"Then it'll make lovely scrap!"

"What's that light?" Rose gasped.

"The heart of the TARDIS." Said the Doctor. "You've opened its soul."

Margret's gaze was drawn to the light, flooding from the console. An incredible feeling of peace washed over her. "It's... so beautiful."

"Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch. Look at the light."

A vague expression crossed Margret's face and Rose felt the claw drop away from her neck. She glanced at the light herself as she scrambled away. Just for a moment, she felt an indescribable connection to everything around her. A split second later, she turned away and it was gone. Rose ran round the far side of the console from the Slitheen woman.

Margret seemed unaware of anything by this point. She gazed gleefully into the heart ot the TARDIS, grinning like a little child. "Thank you." She said to the Doctor, and vanished. The hollow skin suit dropped to the ground.

"Close your eyes." Shouted the Doctor. He hit some controls and the panel sealed shut. "We've got to shut everything down. Jack operate the failsafes. Rose turn all the switches on that panel there to the right."

They did as instructed. Huge puffs of vapour emitted from under the floor grating as all sorts of components performed emergency fuel dumps. But gradually, the shaking stopped, the warning lights dimmed, and the column of energy shooting up from the TARDIS died down.

"Nice work everybody." The Doctor grinned.

"What about Margret?" Rose looked over the skin suit.

"Must've burnt her up." Said Jack. "She carried out her own death sentence."

"No." Said the Doctor. "I don't think she's dead. She looked into the heart of the TARDIS. Even I don't know how strong that is. You know how it gets inside your head, translates alien languages. Maybe it can translate all sorts of other things..." He reached inside the suit and pulled out a small brown object, with a collection of tentacles attached. "There she is."

"She's an egg?" Said Rose.

"Regressed to a child." He grinned.

"She's an egg!" Jack emphasised.

"She can start again. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell 'em to bring her up right, she might be alright."

"Or she might be worse." Muttered Jack.

"That's her choice."  
"She's an egg." Sighed Rose.

"She's an egg."

"But does she really deserve a second chance?" Said Jack. "I mean, she was trying to kill us, even when she was pretending to plead for mercy."

"Everyone deserves a second chance." Said the Doctor. "If they're willing to use it."

"Mickey!" Rose realised.

She rushed out the TARDIS, across the cracked plass and up to the place she'd left him. But he was nowhere to be seen.

She spent an hour searching through streets filled with wreckage, along with panicking people who had never experienced an earthquake before. She asked several police and ambulance people, who were out in force now, but no one had seen him. Nor did any of them have the time to help her find him.

What she didn't notice was that Mickey was watching her from the shadows. With half the streetlights out, shadows were easy to come by. For a while, he debated whether he should go to her. But he eventually decided against it. It would be best for both of them if he simply turned and walked away, back to London, and a council flat Rose no longer called home.

Having finally given up, Rose returned to the TARDIS, where the Doctor was just finishing patching things up.

"Opening up the rift caused a surge of energy." He said. "Means we can go now, if that's ok of course?"

"Yeah." Muttered Rose.

"How's Mickey?"

"He's... fine. Probably. Couldn't find him."

"Do you want to look again? We can wait."

"No." She sighed. "He deserves better."

The Doctor thought he could understand her words, but lacked the experience to think of anything comforting to say. Instead he changed the subject. "Off we go then."

"Next stop Raxacoricofallapatorius." Said Jack. "Not something you get to say every day."

"We'll drop her off in the hatchery." Said the Doctor. "And Margret the Slitheen can live her life again. A second chance."

"That would be nice." Muttered Rose.

* * *

**Authors Notes: I've added in some lines here to make the moral dilemma more relevant in the climax. Many fans have argued that Margret didn't deserve a second chance since she was bluffing the whole time. I don't really have any strong feelings on the matter but I thought it needed addressing. What I've added is what I think RTD had in mind.**

**Next time: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways.**


End file.
